Chapter 5 #3
Mom inched around Dad, tears shiny rivers on her flushed cheeks.
“What was the plan, Mom?” I stepped out from behind Ren to talk to her, but I couldn’t help my shitty tone.
“For-for you and your dad to share a room.” She wiped at her tears with trembling fingers.
“Like hell,” Ren barked.
Mom covered her mouth and stared at him. “Who are you?”
“Yeah.” Dad cocked his head and his neck cracked. “I want a name, too.”
Ren rolled his eyes. “One of Oliver’s boyfriends.”
“This is Ren, Mom,” I muttered.
“Oh.” She wiped at more tears.
How could she not recognize him? I’d told her all about him. I was pretty sure I’d shown her a picture or two. I flexed my fingers into a fist. Dad couldn’t know anything about my life—unless maybe Mom had been telling him. How had this morning gotten so messed up so fast?
An awkward, awful silence stretched out between all of us. Dad wasn’t in as much of a hurry to murder someone I was dating. Maybe. I couldn’t really speculate, could I? I didn’t know the man.
“All the times I wrote. Tried to call. All the times I needed a dad. Now you’re here when you need something.” My temples throbbed and blood rushed in my ears. “You want space in my life now? When I finally don’t need you anymore?”
His scowl was twisted, more of a grimace. “Your mom has been saying a boy needs his dad for years.”
I groaned. “I’m not a boy anymore.” I gestured at myself.
He eyed up Ren. “Well, you aren’t a man if you let someone else handle your business.
” He struck fast, grabbing the ring hanging on the necklace around my throat.
It hurt the back of my neck as the chain snapped.
The broken silver glittered in his fist. “What the fuck?” He glared at Mom, then me. “Why do you have this?”
My brain stopped working. My muscles vibrated, and then I leaped for him.
He yelled as I tried to claw his meaty fist open for that ring.
He shoved me on my ass, but I was back up before any pain registered, trying to get the ring.
I clung to his arm, and he tried to shake me off. “That was my dad’s!”
Mom shrieked.
“I’m your dad, you wacko. And it’s mine! You didn’t earn this. You should’ve never touched it! You’re lucky King didn’t cut it off you.”
Ren tugged me back, but I floundered and thrashed.
“I don’t know who the fuck this guy is, but he isn’t my dad!” I panted.
Dad rounded on Mom. “You didn’t tell me the kid was a wackadoodle. Maybe it’s time you cut him loose. Do you want him here?”
A sad sound crawled out of my throat as Mom did an impression of a deer in headlights instead of screaming no in his stupid fucking face.
Ren growled and his fist connected with Dad’s jaw.
I didn’t see it coming. Dad’s arms pinwheeled and he fell backward against the wall for a second time.
The ring and necklace rolled to the floor and I clawed them up and ran.
I bounced off the front door, then pulled it open and sprinted to Shakira.
Ren was right behind me. “In!” he yelled.
The doors were barely closed when he backed his baby up. Dad ran out of the house, but the tires screeched and he was in the rearview mirror cursing.
I rested my hand on my runaway heart. My other hand ached, and I slowly unfurled my fist to study the ring.
“Oliver? What was happening?” He sounded a little freaked out, which was fair.
“That wasn’t my dad.” Tears poured down my face and I sniffed.
He glanced between me and the road with a worried frown. “Your mom seemed to think he was. Do we need to go back?”
I whimpered. “No.” The ring was cool as I slipped it on.
My stomach churned and I felt too hot, so I put down the window and leaned toward the rush of air.
“My dad would’ve been excited to see me.
He would’ve apologized for abandoning me.
He would’ve hugged me and asked about school.
Told my mom he had money stashed somewhere for us all to have a new life. A better life.”
Ren snorted, and I glared at him, but he was focused on the traffic. “You wanted a leprechaun. Or a djinn. You didn’t want a dad, you wanted a miracle.”
My heart froze. “Fuck.”
He took my hand and held it firmly. “I didn’t mean to sound so harsh.”
“Why was Mom so happy?” I muttered.
He gave me a wicked grin. “Wanna go back and ask? I can punch your dad again.”
My heart jump-started and I smiled, tasting salt. “Dad might shoot us.”
He chuckled and I did, too, but I felt like shit.
Ren cleared his throat. “Where are we headed?”
“Your tattoo parlor. I don’t want to be alone.”
He kissed the back of my hand, lips lingering. The warmth made me feel closer to human. “Being disappointed in your dad gets easier, I promise.”
I stared at the ring on my hand and twisted it. “I don’t even know why I wanted this back so bad. But it doesn’t belong to that asshole.”
“No, it belongs to the leprechaun.”
I tried to smile because I knew that was what Ren wanted.
“This is why I don’t meet parents. I’m beginning to think the problem is me.” He sighed dramatically.
The idiot sounded so sincere that I laughed for real.